Big Apple Film Fest 2023 shorts grapple with politics, 'me too'

Although polls show the U.S. is more politically divided than ever, filmmaker Alrick Brown doesn’t believe it should impact how people treat each other.

To spread the message, Brown wrote, and directed a short film called My New York in which a Macedonian immigrant portrayed by Tony Naumovski comes to the rescue of a black transgender woman (Kya Azeen) being beat up by a homophobic immigrant.

“There's right and there’s wrong and sometimes we lose track of that because of where we stand on the political spectrum,” Brown said. “You can still help people out if they're struggling whether you agree with their politics or not.”

My New York, produced by John Michael Reefer, is among six short films that the 20th Annual Big Apple Film Festival(BAFF) Fall Edition screened on the evening of Saturday Nov. 4 at Cinema Village movie theatre on East 12 Street.

Other films paired with My New York were Rabbit Hole, written and directed by Aaron Schoonover, and Casting Couch on Greenwich St, written by Emily Bronner.

Rabbit Hole is about a young homosexual in Ohio named Blake played by Nate Frison whose Republican mother Denise (Catherine Curtin) believes in QAnon conspiracy theories and supports President Donald Trump.

Denise expels Blake from her home, not for being gay but because he’s vaccinated against COVID-19.

“I knew I wanted to do a coming-of-age story with a queer character and I thought it would make a way more interesting story to feature this once loving mom who is going down this rabbit hole,” Schoonover said after the screening. “That’s more of a conflict to me than the abusive drunk father caricature.”

Schoonover based his film on a Reddit thread about Qanon casualties.

“It was a lot of people talking about their mom or spouses who spent their retirement money buying silver,” he said. “It really hit me. I spent a couple of hours scrolling through thousands of posts. It’s an epidemic that’s tearing families apart.”

Casting Couch on Greenwich St is a 'me too' film based on a true story in which Bronner plays an actress who meets a top-tier film producer named Jack Manfreed (Mark Resnick) who has a questionable reputation.

“I wanted the Jack character to resemble Harvey Weinstein as much as possible,” Bronner said during the Q&A after the screening. “That was super important to me. Mark Resnick is a lovely guy but he does play such a creepy, creepy man.”

The One Note Man, directed by George C. Siougas, The Flip Side, directed by Sophie Worm, Being, directed by Ziyne Abdo, The Beginning of the End, directed by Justin Cole Mossa, and Strangers, directed by Slav Velkov, screened on the same day.

BAFF independent film selections continue through Nov. 9. Tickets can be purchased on the BAFF website.